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Newly elected Florida governor Ron DeSantis suspended Broward County sheriff Scott Israel on Friday over failing’s in his department’s response to the mass shooting that left 17 people dead at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School last February

cbsnews
Florida's new governor has suspended the sheriff whose deputies were assigned to protect the Parkland school where 17 people died in a massacre last February. Gov. Ron DeSantis removed Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel on Friday. He appointed former Coral Springs police Sgt. Gregory Tony to replace Israel.

DeSantis tweeted Friday that the suspension was over Israel's "repeated failures, incompetence and neglect of duty." "The massacre might never have happened had Broward had better leadership in the sheriff's department," DeSantis said.

A state commission investigating the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School recently concluded Israel's changes to the department's active shooter policy may have contributed to some deputies' inaction during the shooting. DeSantis' executive order says that Israel inserted into the department's active shooter policy that deputies "may" enter a building to confront a shooter in order to preserve life.

As such, it says, deputy Scot Peterson, the only armed deputy on campus the day of the massacre, "exercised the discretion of Sheriff Israel" when he failed to confront the shooter. It also notes that six nearby Broward sheriff's deputies "did not immediately move towards the gunshots to confront the shooter."